Be Ambidextrous, Students Advised

April 10, 1986|United Press International

BOSTON — American medical schools should abandon an antiquated teaching method requiring students to examine patients from the right side of the bed using only their right hand, a doctor said Wednesday.

``We suggest that medical students be taught to use their left hands as well as their right hands for physical examination,`` Dr. Suat Akgun of the New Jersey Medical School in Newark, N.J., in a letter he wrote with one of his students to The New England Journal of Medicine.

Most U.S. schools require students to adhere to the right-hand rule and some go so far as to fail students who don`t follow the rule, said Akgun.

But after reviewing 20 books on physical diagnosis, only one was found to explicitly state that doctors must be at the patient`s right side for examination while two other made passing references to the rule. None explained the reason for the rule.

``There is no basis really,`` said Akgun in a telephone interview. ``It appears to be a custom that has been carried on for no apparent reason.``